Musubi, and the Thread that Moves
by DaBlazinAzn
Summary: "Musubi...this word has profound meaning. Tying thread is musubi. Connecting people is musubi. The flow of time is musubi...they converge and take shape. They twist, tangle, sometimes unravel, break, then connect again. Musubi, that's time." In which Taki is given time to reflect.


**Hey guys. So this is going to be quite an experiment, cause this is the first time I have ever written a story on this site. Yes, it has been a long time coming, but the movie Kimi No Na Wa has just inspired me to make this fic. Idk if it's going to be good or not, but I'll give it a shot. Anyways, pleaseeeeeeee review and tell me what I did wrong on this fic, cause I would love to make another one, hopefully a bit better than this one.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing towards Kimi No Na Wa, nor did I provide any sort of contribution to the makings of the masterpiece that is Kimi No Na Wa. I'm just an onlooker from afar...**

* * *

"Musubi," I said with a calm demeanor. "If time can really be turned back, give me one more chance."

I took the shot of Mitsuha's kuchikamesake, dearly wishing for one last chance to set things right and save her. I closed my eyes with a mixture of anticipation, nervousness, and hopefulness in my stomach as I waited for something, anything, to happen.

But nothing changed.

For a moment, regret washed over my features, and with a heavy sigh, I tried to get up to make my way out of the cave. I ran out of miracles, I suppose.

As I stood up however, I noticed something peculiar. The vision was seemingly forced upwards as I felt my feet twisting against each other.

'Oh, I'm falling I guess,' I thought. My vision was clouded with emotions of false hope and despair. So much so, that I didn't notice the drawing on the ceiling. It wasn't until I focused my vision that I finally realized what I was seeing.

It was a falling star, or a comet. The more I focused on the strange drawing, the more I felt myself being pulled into a trance-like state. I guess it was kind of like a trip on hallucinogen, but my mind was too enchanted by the sights around me.

At first, all I saw was black. In the deep dark, I could see a thread-like shape, weaving and twisting throughout. I felt myself tied to the thread, as if it were my anchor, my safety line to keep me from drowning in the sea of memories. The thread led me to the meteor, and to the site of both my greatest joys and my worst despairs. I saw Itomori, but only with a fleeting glance. No, I thought, fate needs me to see something else.

The thread led me deeper still, pulling me in to what I was truly meant to see. I saw Mitsuha. The small baby that would grow to become the strong girl I knew. I saw the physical thread that connected her to her mother, and yet I could still feel the spiritual connection that tied the two closer than anything I had ever experienced. I gave me an outburst of emotion that I couldn't stop. I gasped, feeling the threat pulling me ever further.

It showed me Mitsuha, and her journey through time. How much her parents loved her, and how much she loved in return. The feeling of joy that connected the family when Yotsuha was born, and the anguish when a loved one was taken away. I saw it all, and yet the thread still wasn't done.

It showed me Mitsuha, and what she had to deal with once her father couldn't remain. I saw them at their lowest point, the point where nothing seemed to go right. My heart cried out to Mitsuha, but nothing could be done. I couldn't stand the pain of seeing her cry like that. I reached out to her, but the thread pulled me away, ever farther where I wouldn't be able to reach her.

The thread pulled me to see Mitsuha scrawling on her skin the messages she specifically wrote to me, albeit some of them being harsh words and insults thrown at me. I wanted it to go back to those days, where she was still alive.

I saw her in tears, and realized that it was because of me that she was crying. I grunted as I tried to reach out towards her, but the thread twisted me away, as it always did.

It finally reached the day of the comet, after she had cut her long hair. I had always liked her hair longer, I thought, and couldn't fathom why she would cut it off. I saw her, about to leave for the festival, when I couldn't hold myself any longer.

I tried to call out to her, "Mitsuha! Don't stay there! Mitsuha, get out of there before the comet strikes!"

It was to no avail. I screamed and begged, but she still couldn't hear me. I was pulled away, to the night of the festival, to the moment of the comet falling onto the beautiful town of Itomori. I gasped, seeing Mitsuha stand in the middle of the falling stars. I trembled, yelling through my lungs. She still couldn't hear me. I saw the fear in her eyes. I couldn't do anything.

"Mitsuha! Mitsuha! Mitsuha!"

* * *

As I climbed the mountain towards the underworld, my mind couldn't help but return to that moment and those memories. They were terrifying, and were the motivation that kept me running even after Mitsuha's legs stopped. I couldn't bear to see the same look on her face right before the meteor crashed into the small town of Itomori. The look of despair that had overtaken her visage.

I called out to her, hoping that she would respond back. I had to trust that musubi would bring us back together again, at this moment.

"Mitsuha!"

I climbed, hoping to hear a response.

"Taki-kun!"

I looked around, trying to find where the voice had come from. My breath had become shallow from the high altitude, but at that point, nothing else seemed to matter than finding Mitsuha.

Running across the mountain, I thought back to when Mitsuha had come to visit me 3 years ago. Back then, she had been a stranger, and therefore someone I had tried to ignore. She had seemed so desperate for me to remember, and I had rejected her outright. Even though I didn't know her back then, something had compelled me to try and ask for her name. It was probably the gods that urged me on, and it was still the gods that led me to this point. It was because of them that I had her thread, and it was because of them that we were connected in the first place. They had connected us through musubi, through the thread that led me to her.

I stopped to catch my breath, and tried to scream her name at the top of my lungs.

"Mitsuha! You're here, aren't you? In my body?"

"Taki-kun! Where are you?"

I desperately tried running towards the sound of my voice. I could hear her, but I couldn't see her. I looked across the mountain. Nothing. At the bottom of the valley. Nothing. I couldn't escape the feeling of helplessness choking me from the inside. I ran, and ran, and ran.

When I heard the sound of a bell.

It was distinct, familiar. I could sense her there. She was standing right beside me, yet I still couldn't see her. I heard her, right in front of me.

"Taki-kun, are you..."

She was there. She had to be. I slowly reached out my hand, my body not daring move any faster just in case we miss each other. I tried to feel for anything, a shift in the air, a change in temperature, or anything that would give me something as to signal her presence.

But all I felt was the wind.

My hand dropped. I could feel the anguish rising from my stomach. The gods had brought us here, but not together. Never together. I could feel myself coming close to tears. At that point, I felt that musubi had run its course, and that all hope was lost. There was nothing that we could do, because we come from two very similar, but different worlds.

I stood there for a few more minutes, sensing that she hadn't moved either. There was a silence that was so thick, I could feel the weight of it pushing me further into the ground. The realization that we wouldn't be able to see each other weighed on my mind further. There would be no happy ending for us, as much as we wanted it. At the very least, I wished for one more chance to hear her, to feel her, to see her.

The clouds shifted, and blocked out the sun. I looked up, seeing that the sun now hung low near the horizon. I realized that the time must have been getting really late.

"It's kataware-doki."

Suddenly, my point of view shifted. I could feel myself get a little taller, with a bit more muscle. With a start, I realized that I had switched into my own body. Which must have meant...

I twisted my head slowly, not wanting to get my hopes up, when I see out of the corner of my eye the girl with the short hair, brown eyes, and adequate breasts.

My breath hitched. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was her in the flesh. With the eyes that shined brilliantly with so many emotions. They radiated as if reflecting the colors of the world which she saw at that moment. I couldn't help but smile at the sight. She looked more beautiful than I had ever seen her, even as she had started to cry. It was at that point that I realized that I was so deeply in love with her. My heart was beating itself out of my chest as I stared longer at her divine visage. It took me all the effort just to say a single word.

"Mitsuha."

She looked at me with tears running down her face. Her voice was smooth and sweet, yet fragile as if a single breath would blow me away. She reached out to hold me, but I still couldn't remember to move my body. She looked at me from head to toe, as if I weren't real, as if all of this would fade away in a single instant. Finally, when she realized what she was holding wasn't a dream, shown the most brilliant smile I had ever laid my eyes on. It was one filled with both happiness and relief.

"Taki-kun."

"I came to see you. It wasn't easy because you were so far away." I chuckled. It was funny, how close she was, just an hour train ride away, yet how far she was, 3 years ahead of me.

"B-but how? At that moment I..." She must've been talking about the moment she died.

"I drank your kuchikamisake." I explained. She looked up at me, then slowly started to back away. She looked at me with a mixture of disgust and disbelief. The face she made confused me, making me wonder if I did something wrong.

"You drank that?" I had a confused look on my face. What was wrong with drinking the sake? It wasn't like there was anything wrong with drinking aged alcohol, right?

"You stupid pervert!" she yelled. By that point I was really confused. Drinking sake has nothing to do with sex! Oh wait...nevermind.

"Oh yeah, you also touched my boobs!" she exclaimed. For that, I was guilty of being a pervert. There was no use in lying, as I'm not a very good liar anyways.

"How do you know about that?"

"Yotsuha saw it!"

"Oh! Sorry about that. I couldn't help it. It was only once." I was lying through my teeth, and she knew it.

"Only once? Hmm...well, it still doesn't matter how many times, you jerk!"

"Sorry." I bowed my head hoping to get away from this one, when I realized that she was staring at something on my arm.

"This is?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, why did you come see me before I knew you? There's no way I'd recognize you." I handed her the thread that she handed me from three years ago. I felt a little sad about returning it, but felt it was only right. "Here, I kept it for three years. Now you keep it."

She took it with a smile on her face. She wrapped the thread around her now shortened hair and made a bow when she tied it together. She looked back to me and asked for my approval.

"How does it look?"

I blushed a little bit, because honestly, it made her a lot cuter when she tied it like that. Of course, I was too embarrassed to say something like that, and only replied with a "Not bad."

She quickly got on my case however, accusing me of lying. I was still recovering from my previous embarrassment, so I quickly apologized and stated to laugh it off. She pouted, a look of discontent on her face.

"Geez, you're really something." She turned her head aloofly, but quickly started to laugh. The laugh started to radiate, and soon, I found myself laughing along with her. It was just so ridiculous, see each other for the first time and acting like this that we couldn't help but laugh. It was one that relieved us of the current weights on our shoulders, and allowed us a brief reprieve together that I never wanted to end. However, I knew that there was little time to waste, and as much as I didn't want this to end, we both knew that we would have to separate at sometime.

"Listen Mitsuha, there are still things you need to do. Don't worry you still have some time left."

"Yes, I'll try to do my best."

We stood in each other's presences for as much time as we could. I tried to soak in as much of her as I could, trying to memorize her scent, voice, laughter, appearance, anything that would keep me satisfied for at least after this whole thing was over. We both knew that kataware-doki was almost over. Still, we waited until the final moments together before breaking the silence.

"Kataware-doki is almost..." Over. I didn't want to leave anything behind, or anything that I would come to regret, so I decided that I would tell Mitsuha my feelings. However, at that moment, I couldn't say it to her. During that time, I had made the excuse that it was because I wanted her to focus on the task at hand, and not be distracted by feelings of another. In all honesty, however, I was just scared. I didn't know what was going to happen next, if she would survive or not. I was also scared that she wouldn't reciprocate my feelings. It was cowardice that restricted me from saying the words I wanted to say, but I still wanted to tell her what I felt about her.

"Hey Mitsuha, so that we don't forget when we wake up, let's write our names on each other." Of course, instead of writing my name on her hand, like a sensible person, I wrote "I love you" instead. I couldn't help it. It was the only way I could think of at that time to express the feelings burning in my chest.

"Here."

She happily shook her head yes, and accepted the pen. Just as she was about to write the first character...

The pen dropped from my hand.

I looked around, in a daze. I looked down at my hand, where a single horizontal line was drawn. I stood in shock, realizing that there wasn't enough time to say the things I wanted to say.

"I wanted to tell you, that no matter where you are in the world, I'll search for you."

Those were the words I wanted to tell her. They were unspoken, but true.

I tell the sky that your name is Mitsuha. Mitsuha is your name. I can remember it. It's fine, because your name is Mitsuha. Mitsuha. Mitsuha. Mitsuha. Your name is Mitsuha. I try to write down your name, your name that is Mitsuha.

But I can't.

Because of what, I don't know. But I can't remember your name.

 _Who are you? Why did I come here?_

I came here to see her! _Who is her!?_

Someone important to me. To save her. To keep her alive.

 _Who did I come to see? Who was it?_

Someone I don't want to forget! Someone I shouldn't forget!

 _Who?_

I can feel the tears running down my face. I make no effort to stop them from running. They move freely on my cheeks.

 _What is your name?_


End file.
